Simplified programming of a video cassette recorder having multiple and single channel signal sources

ABSTRACT

In a videocassette recorder including VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system capability and used in conjunction with a cable box and also having direct access to the cable, the channel-mapping procedure may be greatly simplified deleting all premium channels from the channel guidelist, and by automatically substituting the cable box output channel for all decoded VCR PLUS+™ video cassette recorder programming system channel guide channel numbers not appearing in the channel guide list, instead of causing the user to remap all of the premium channels to one of channels 2, 3, or 4.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/704,418, nowabandoned.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The subject application concerns the field of videocassette recorders(VCRs) and apparatus for programming them.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The subject patent application is related to patent applications bearingU.S. patent application Ser. No. 695,026, now abandoned, U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 695,025, now abandoned, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 694,310, now abandoned, and U.S. patent application Ser. No.704,419, now abandoned, herewith, and assigned to the same assignee asthe subject invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is generally believed that many, if not the vast majority, of peopleare simply unable to program their VCRs to record a desired televisionprogram on a given channel, at a given time and date. VCR manufacturershave provided different programming schemes in an attempt to addressthis undesirable situation, with little success.

Early VCRs such as the VET 650 manufactured by RCA Corporation,Indianapolis, Indiana, were programmed by means of pushbuttons mountedon the front panel of the VCR. The pushbuttons controlled the entry oftime-on, time-off, date, and channel number data. Feedback was providedto the user by means of a front-panel-mounted LED (light emitting diode)display. While such systems accomplished the programming task, they werenot perceived as being user-friendly.

Later VCRs such as the Panasonic model PV-4800 manufactured by PanasonicCompany, Division of Matsushita Electric Corporation of America,Secaucus, New Jersey, provided on-screen programming in an effort tomake programming the VCR a less intimidating and confusing task.Nonetheless, users may still be confused by the numerous programmingsteps involved.

Panasonic VCR model PV-2812 employs a bar-code reader for programmingthe recording of television shows. In this system, a user draws abar-code reader across the appropriate codes printed on a bar-codesheet. This solution is considered inadequate for several reasons.First, most newspapers do not print television schedule bar-codes.Second, such printed barcode sheets tend to be relatively large piecesof paper which should be stored in a place, presumably near the VCR,where they will be readily available for programming. Third, the usermust use yet another piece of equipment (i.e., the bar-code reader) inorder to read-in the code for his desired television show.

When the user is a subscriber to a cable television system, hisconfusion concerning VCR programming may be greatly multiplied, becauseit is common practice in cable television systems to translate programsfrom their normal "air" channel to a different "cable" channel. Forexample, a television program broadcast on channel 29 may be received bya cable television subscriber on cable channel 09. Thus, when thechannel listed in the channel guide of the local newspaper is not thechannel upon which the desired television show is actually conveyed bythe user's cable TV service, the VCR programming task may appearinsurmountable.

Recently, a programming simplification system known as "VCR PLUS+™, "manufactured by Gemstar Development Corporation, .Pasadena, California,has become available. Briefly, the apparatus of the VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system resembles a standard remotecontrol handunit. The handunit is preprogrammed with the codes forcontrolling the VCRs and cable control boxes of many manufacturers. Thehandunit is then programmed by the user with a unique code comprising 1to 8 digits, which code corresponds to a particular television showbroadcast on a given channel, at a given time and date, and having agiven duration. A television show which is broadcast at the most popularviewing time (for example, 7 pm) may have a code which comprises only 1digit. Conversely, a television show which is broadcast at the leastpopular viewing time (for example, 3 am) may have a code which comprisesthe full 8 digits. These codes are printed in the channel guide sectionof the viewer's local newspaper along with the normal time and channelinformation. After entering the unique 1 to 8 digit code for aparticular television show to be recorded, the user places the handunitin a cradle mounted on his VCR to ensure that the handunit is in theproper orientation for transmitting data to the IR (infrared) receiverof the VCR. At the proper time, the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system handunit transmits IR codes to the VCR to turn it onand program it to record the desired television show.

While at first glance, it appears that the VCR PLUS+™ videocassetterecorder programming system solves the consumer's VCR-programmingconfusion problem, a significant problem remains. If the user is a cabletelevision subscriber, the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programmingsystem has no way of knowing which broadcast channels are assigned towhich cable channels of the user's particular cable service. Thus, touse the same example as given above, a user who is a cable televisionsubscriber must perform a channel-mapping procedure to inform the VCRPLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system handunit that channel29 is actually received on cable channel 09. The VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system provides a method of selectingeach of its channel-programming positions to effect this one-timechannel-mapping procedure. However, the task of selecting each positionfor channel-mapping is in itself somewhat confusing and time-consuming.

There is a further problem that is encountered when users attempt torecord a television show from a some cable television systems in thatthese cable television systems require the use of a receiver unit,normally referred to as a cable box, or set-top converter. In thesesystems, many cable channels (i.e., the so-called premium channels) arescrambled (i.e., encoded or encrypted) and must be descrambled (i.e.,decoded or decrypted) in the cable box. The cable box descrambles thepremium channel and converts its RF carrier frequency from its assignedcable channel frequency to a cable box output frequency, normally thatof channel 2, 3, 4, or 5. Thus, if the VCR were directly connected tothe incoming cable, and if cable channel 40 were a scrambled premiumchannel, programming the VCR to record cable channel 40 would cause theVCR to record a scrambled signal. That is, the usable, descrambledversion of cable channel 40 appears at the output of the cable box onone of channels 2, 3, 4, or 5. Unfortunately, if the VCR were to becoupled to the cable box directly, then the ability to tune and recordall nonscambled cable channels would be lost, because the VCR has nocontrol over the cable box channel selection circuitry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 695,026, discloses aprogramming system built into a VCR which includes VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system capability and autoprogrammingcapability. That application recognized that the channel-mappingprocedure may be greatly simplified by using the autoprogramming featureto locate and program all active channels, and then by mapping in achannel guide list only those channels which are active, instead ofrequiring the user to select all 125 possible channel-programmingpositions. It is herein recognized that when a user has access to acable system via a cable box, and to the cable system directly, that theVCR PLUS+™ channel mapping feature may be automatically performed forpremium channels from the cable box, thus simplifying the programmingeven more.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 shows, in block diagram form, a VCR incorporating the subjectinvention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a portion of the control program of thecontroller of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is illustrations showing display screens produced in accordancewith the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the channel mapping portion of the controlprogram of the controller of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows blocks of memory locations of the EEPROM of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 shows various connections of a VCR to a cable television system.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of another portion of the control program ofthe controller of FIG. 1.

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of yet another portion of the control programof the controller of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, radio frequency (RF) signals are applied to an RFinput terminal of a tuner assembly 102. Tuner assembly 102 selects aparticular RF signal under control of a tuner control unit 104 whichapplies a tuning control signal to tuner assembly 102 via a wire 103,and applies band-switching signals via a control bus 103'. Tuner controlunit 104 is controlled by a controller 110. Controller 110, which may bea microprocessor or microcomputer, includes a central processing unit(CPU) 112, a read-only memory (ROM) 114, a random access memory 116, andan external electrically-erasable read only memory (EEPROM) 117.Controller 110 generates a control signal for causing tuner control unit104 to control tuner 102 to select a particular RF signal, in responseto user-entered control signals from a local keyboard 120 and from aninfrared (IR) receiver 122. IR receiver 122 receives and decodes remotecontrol signals transmitted by a remote control unit 125.

Tuner 102 produces a signal at an intermediate frequency (IF) andapplies it to a processing unit 130 comprising a video IF (VIF)amplifying stage, an AFT circuit, a video detector, and a sound IF (SIF)amplifying stage. Processing unit 130 produces a baseband compositevideo signal (TV), and a sound carrier signal. The sound carrier signalis applied to an audio signal processor unit 135 which includes an audiodetector and may include a stereo decoder. Audio signal processor unit135 produces baseband audio signals and applies them to a signal switchunit 137.

The baseband video signal (TV) is coupled to a video processor unit 155and is also applied to signal switch unit 137. Video and audio signalsare also applied to a tape recorder unit 165 which causes the signals tobe recorded onto video tape. Tape recorder unit 165 has a control inputand operates under control of a tape recorder unit controller 160, whichmay be a microprocessor. Tape recorder unit controller 160 is in turncontrolled by control signals from controller 110. Under control ofcontroller 110, an on-screen display processor 140 generates charactersignals, and applies them to a second input of video signal processor155, for inclusion in the processed video signal. Signal switch unit 137is controlled by controller 110 via a control input terminal C to selectaudio and video signals from audio signal processor 135 and video signalprocessor 155, or from the output terminals of tape recording unit 165in the playback mode, and to apply the selected signals to a modulator139 for modulation onto a particular channel frequency carrier,typically that of channel 3 or channel 4. The circuitry described thusfar is known from RCA videocassette recorder model VR520.

Unlike the RCA VR520, which has as its main programming feature a TIMERPROGRAM mode of operation, apparatus according to the subject inventionincludes both a TIMER PROGRAM programming feature and a VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system programming feature. Thecontrol program for the above-mentioned features resides in ROM 114 ofcontroller 110. Electrically-erasable programmable read only memory(EEPROM) 117 is coupled to controller 110, and serves as a non-volatilestorage element for storing autoprogramming channel data, user-enteredchannel data, and VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming systemchannel mapping data.

It is herein recognized that it is a clear advantage for the unit whichcontains the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming systemcontrol code (in the subject case, the VCR) to be coupled to thetelevision antenna line, so that the controller can determine whichchannels are active. By displaying only the active channels, consumerconfusion regarding the channel mapping task is reduced due toshortening of the channel mapping list by elimination of those channelswhich are inactive.

The present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, and3a through 3n. With respect to FIGS. 3a through 3n, assume that a VCRaccording to the present invention is coupled to a television set300a-300n, having a picture tube 310a-310n, respectively. FIG. 3a showsa display screen displayed in response to the pressing of the PROGRAMkey of remote control handunit 125. Note that by pressing either key 1or key 2, the user can program a television show for recording by meansof the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system or by normalTIMER PROGRAM recording, respectively. Options 3 and 4 are standardfeatures and need not be described here.

In response to the pressing of key number 5, VCR SET UP, the displayscreen of FIG. 3b is generated, which provides another list of 5options. Selecting item 1 enables the user to toggle back and forthbetween controlling tuner 102 to tune NORMAL (i.e., broadcast or "air")and controlling tuner 102 to tune CATV (i.e., cable) frequencies.Selecting item 2 causes an AUTOPROGRAM function to be implemented inwhich tuner 102 is controlled to search for all active channels andcompile a list of channels which are available to be tuned, and thosewhich are inactive and are to be skipped over. The selection of menuitem 4 allows a user to add a channel to the list or delete a channelfrom the autoprogram scan list. Menu item 5 is not relevant to thesubject invention and need not be described here. Selection of menu item3 causes the display of the screen shown in FIG. 3c.

FIG. 3c shows the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming systemCHANNEL SET UP screen, comprising a lefthand column labelled CATV and arighthand column labelled GUIDE CHANNEL (GUIDE CH). The label CATV ispresent rather than the label NORMAL, because of a NORM/CATV selectionmade earlier with respect to the screen menu of FIG. 3b. In theparticular example shown in FIG. 3c, the first 5 entries of theabove-mention autoprogram list are displayed in the lefthand column. Aone-for-one mapping of the active channels has produced the list shownin the righthand column. That is, the software contained in ROM 114assumed that the television program actually received on channel 4 was aprogram transmitted by the broadcaster who actually broadcasts onchannel 4. As a starting point, the same assumption is made for allother channels received, as shown by the one-for-one correspondence ofthe column entries. However, as noted above, the signal received oncable channel 09 may have actually been transmitted by the broadcasteron channel 29, and moved to the channel 09 position by the cablecompany. This causes the following problem. A newspaper TV listing listsa particular television show to be broadcast on a particular date, at aparticular time, and on a particular channel, in this case channel 29.The VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system program codeprinted in the newspaper TV listing will, when descrambled and decoded,produce the channel guide channel number 29, not the channel guidechannel number 09. Thus, some means of "mapping" the channel guidechannel number 29 to the cable channel number 09 must be provided.

Such channel mapping means is shown in FIGS. 3c and 3d. An arrow 320c isshown pointing to the line containing the channel number to be remapped.The direction of the arrow indicates which column entry will be changed.FIG. 3c shows the entries before the change, and FIG. 3d shows theentries after the change (i.e., after the channel 29 data is entered).

As a result of the channel mapping operation, when the channel guidechannel number 29 is descrambled and decoded from the VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system code, tuner 102 will becontrolled to tune to cable channel 09, on the proper date, at theproper time. The basic operation for descrambling and decoding anentered VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system code isshown in FIG. 2. All the elements of FIG. 2 with the exception ofelements 235 and 245 are known from the previous implementation of theVCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system. Elements 235 and245 will be discussed in detail below.

A further advantage of the subject apparatus over the previousimplementation of the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programmingsystem is that the display of the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system handunit comprises a single line of data, while thesubject apparatus displays five lines of data on a television screen.This arrangement produces two advantages. First, it presents the userwith five times as much channel mapping information at any given time,and second, it more effectively conveys the notion that the user isviewing a portion of a list comprising multiple entries. It is felt thatboth of these advantages tend to reduce user confusion.

Advantageously, the subject apparatus requires no pushbuttons unique tothe VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system to be added tothe VCR remote control handunit. Thus, customers with previouslypurchased "unified" or "universal" remote controls (i.e., those remotecontrol handunits having the capability to control both television setsand VCRs of a given manufacturer) are be able to use them to program thesubject VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system-equippedVCR. For example, the handunit of the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system includes a REVIEW key, a key generally not found onVCR or television set remote control handunits. In order to provide theREVIEW function, yet maintain downward compatibility with existingremote control handunits, the CHANNEL UP AND CHANNEL DOWN keys are usedto scroll through the channel mapping list. FIGS. 3e and 3f illustratescrolling up and down, respectively, through the channel mapping list.Note that the indicator arrow remains stationary during the scrollingprocess.

FIGS. 3g and 3h illustrate the process of deleting an entry from theguide channel list stored in EEPROM 117. In FIG. 3g, the list wasscrolled until the indicator pointed to the entry to be deleted, in thiscase channel 13. Then the STOP key of remote control unit 125 waspressed to perform the deletion. Note that the line containing channel13 remains on the display of FIG. 3g with the GUIDE CHANNEL entry erased(i.e., replaced by dashes). This enables the user to replace the valueif the deletion was performed in error. However, if the user correctlydeleted the entry, the user can complete the deletion of the entire lineby simply scrolling the dashed entry off of the screen. When thatportion of the list formerly containing the dashed entry is nextdisplayed, the entire line associated with the deleted entry will beabsent from the list, as shown in FIG. 3h (i.e., channel 13 entrymissing). Having finished mapping all necessary channels, and deletingall channels which were undesired, the PROGRAM key is pushed to exit theVCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system SET UP routines,once again produce the screen of FIG. 3a.

Pressing key 1 will cause the display of the screen of FIG. 3i. In FIG.3i the user is instructed to enter the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system code from his local TV listing. In FIG. 3j aparticular 4 digit listing 3538 has been entered. After pressing theENTER key of remote control unit 125, the screen of FIG. 3k is produced.The three choices of the menu screen of FIG. 3k are well known in theart, are self-explanatory, and need no further explanation here.Pressing key 1 provides the user with a filled-in schedule (FIG. 3L)derived from the information in the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system code 3538. In order to avoid user confusion, thechannel number displayed in the screen of FIG. 3L is the remappedchannel number (in this example, channel 09) and not the channel numberwhich appears in the newspaper listing (in this example, channel 29).One reason for this is that 09 is the channel number which thisparticular user would have to enter if he were programming his VCR viathe TIMER PROGRAM menu. Thus, the displayed channel numbers of the twoprogramming systems are consistent with one another.

Turning once again to FIG. 3a, if the user had pressed key 2 TIMERPROGRAM, he would have caused the display of the screen of FIG. 3m,which is essentially the same as the display of FIG. 3k for the VCRPLUS+™ programming example. If key 1 ONE TIME PROGRAM is pressed, thenthe display of FIG. 3n is produced, as is known from the prior art, formanual filling-in of the necessary data.

It is important to note that controller 110 "remembers" if the VCRPLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system was selected for thelast recording (i.e., stores data in a memory location of EEPROM 117),and if so, automatically selects VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system mode for the next recording. That is, the program inROM 114 controls the display of the screens such that, if VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system mode was selected for therecording of the last TV show, then the next time that the PROGRAM keyis pressed, the screen of FIG. 3a is skipped and the screen of FIG. 3iis the first screen displayed.

A portion of the control program for controller 110, for controlling achannel mapping operation, is illustrated in the flowchart of FIG. 4.For ease of understanding, FIGS. 4 and 5 will be explained withreference to each other. The channel-mapping routine of FIG. 4 isentered at step 400. At step 405, the channel mapping list stored in thechannel mapping list area of EEPROM 117 (shown in the righthand portionof FIG. 5) is displayed.

The addresses 505 of the channel mapping list correspond to televisionchannels (i.e., except for channel 0 in the United States). Each memorylocation of the channel mapping list comprises eight bits of memory.Seven-bit portions (designated 520 in FIG. 5) are used for storing thechannel guide channel number (0 to 125) and the eighth bit (designated510) is used to indicate whether or not the channel is active or to beskipped. The lefthand column of memory locations of FIG. 5 contains theautoprogramming channel scan list. Each location of the autoprogrammingchannel scan list comprises eight bits of memory, seven for channelnumber, and the eighth for designating active or skip status for theparticular channel. When an autoprogramming sequence is performed, boththe autoprogramming channel scan list and the channel mapping list areautomatically programmed to contain identical channel data. Thereafter,both lists may be modified independently of each other.

It is important to note that if the user moves to a new geographic area,his autoprogramming channel scan list and channel mapping list must beupdated for the active channels in his new area. The task ofreprogramming the user's VCR is eased by the subject apparatus becausechoosing the AUTOPROGRAM feature from the menu of FIG. 3b automaticallyreprograms both the autoprogramming scan list and the channel mappinglist at essentially the same time. Additional channels added to theautoprogramming scan list (i.e., via the ADD/ERASE function from themenu screen of FIG. 3b, or via ADD/ERASE keys (not shown) of remotecontrol handunit 125) will automatically be added to the channel mappinglist. However, channels deleted from the autoprogramming scan list(i.e., via the ADD/ERASE function from the menu screen of FIG. 3b, orvia ADD/ERASE keys (not shown) of remote control handunit 125) will notautomatically be deleted from the channel mapping list. To understandthe reasoning behind this method of operation, recall that if a channelis programmed into the autoprogramming scan list, then the tuner willalways stop at that channel when scanning down from the next higherchannel, or when scanning up from the next lower channel with theCHANNEL DOWN and CHANNEL UP keys, respectively. If a particular channelis seldom watched, the user may wish to delete it from theautoprogramming scan list to prevent it from being tuned during channelscans. In addition, a cable television subscriber may delete theso-called "Premium" channels from his autoprogramming scan list becausethose channels often convey movies which he may feel are not suitablefor viewing by children. Deleting those channels from theautoprogramming scan list causes the tuner to skip those channels duringa scan, but they can still be tuned by direct channel number entry.Furthermore, it is felt that a viewer should still be able to record aspecific television show on that particular seldom-watched channel, viaVCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system programming, eventhough it is not programmed into his autoprogramming scan list.

Returning to FIG. 4, as noted above, the control program in program ROM114 assumes a one-to-one correspondence of active channels to channelguide channels unless otherwise informed. Thus in step 405, the samechannel number data is displayed in the righthand channel guide columnas shown in FIG. 3c. The control program now begins to look for keyboardentries from the user. At step 415, a determination is made if anentered keycode is that of the PROGRAM key. As can be seen from FIG. 3c,the PROGRAM key is used to exit the channel mapping routine. If thekeycode is that of the PROGRAM key, then the routine advances to step417 wherein a determination is made as to whether or not new channeldata has been entered. If so, the new channel data is stored (step 419)and the routine is exited. If not, the routine is exited at step 425.

If at step 415, the received keycode was not that of the PROGRAM key,then the NO path is taken to step 420, wherein a check is made to see ifthe received keycode is the CHANNEL UP keycode. The control programinterprets a CHANNEL UP or CHANNEL DOWN command as an indication thatthe user is finished modifying the current line. Note that because ofthis interpretation, there is no need for an ENTER key (which is notpresent on all existing remote control handunits). Therefore, at step422 a check is made to see if new channel data has been entered. If so,the new channel data will be stored (step 424), and then the displaywill be scrolled up one line (step 426). If not, the routine willadvance directly to step 426 for scrolling the display up. The routinethen loops around to step 415 to continue examining received keycodes.

If at step 420, the received keycode was not that of CHANNEL UP, theroutine advances to step 430 to check whether or not the receivedkeycode is that of CHANNEL DOWN. If yes, the routine advances to step432 wherein a check is made to see if new channel data has been entered.If so, the new channel data will be stored (step 434), and then thedisplay will be scrolled down one line (step 436). If not, the routinewill advance directly to step 436 for scrolling the display down. Theroutine then loops around to step 415 to continue examining receivedkeycodes.

If at step 430, the received keycode was not that of CHANNEL DOWN, theroutine advances to step 440 to check whether or not the receivedkeycode is that of the STOP key. If so, The current line is deleted. Asnoted above, this means that two dashes replace the data in the displayof the channel mapping list, as shown in FIG. 3g. As explained above, ifthe display is then scrolled to a position in which the dashes are offscreen, then the entire line is deleted. Thereafter, scrolling thedisplay back to its original position reveals a display screen in whichthe entire previously-dashed line is deleted. Conversely, if desired,the program may be written to maintain the dashed entry, to enable easyreprogramming of the deleted line of channel information. Afterreplacing the previously-displayed data with dashes, the routine exitsfrom step 442 and loops around to step 415 to continue examiningreceived keycodes.

If the keycode at step 440 did not correspond to that of the STOP key,then the NO path is taken to step 445 wherein a check is made to see ifthe received keycode is that of any number key. If not, then itcorresponds to an irrelevant code and will be ignored by the routine. Inthat case, the routine loops around to step 415 without taking anyaction. In other embodiments, the particular action associated with thereceived keycode (e.g., volume down) can be accomplished, and thereafterthe channel mapping routine can be resumed, or terminated. If thereceived keycode is that of any of the number keys, then the YES path istaken to step 450. At step 450, new channel data corresponding to thereceived keycode is displayed at the current line, as shown in FIG. 3d,and then the routine loops around to step 415.

With respect to the decision diamonds of steps 417, 422, and 432, it isnoted that the EEPROM used has a recommended maximum number of writecycles, and it was felt that it is prudent to check to see if thechannel data has been changed rather than waste a write cycle byneedlessly storing unchanged data. It is recognized that such a checkwould be unnecessary with a storage medium having a virtually unlimitednumber of write cycles.

Deletion of entries in the channel guide list via use of the STOP key isdesirable because, unfortunately, the autoprogramming function may findspurious channels and list them as active channels. If so, they willappear in the autoprogramming scan list and be mapped into the channelguide list with a one-to-one correspondence. This may cause thefollowing problem. Assume a cable television service in which cablechannel 13 is inactive, but has a spurious signal which is detected bythe autoprogramming function thereby falsely identified as an activecable channel. This causes channel 13 to appear in both theautoprogramming scan list and the channel guide list. Further assumethat channel 13 is an active broadcast channel delivered by the cableservice on cable channel 22. In order to remap broadcast channel 13 tocable channel 22, the user will scan down to the line of theautoprogramming scan list containing channel 22, and change thecorresponding channel guide channel number to 13. However, as notedabove, channel 13 was falsely identified as an active cable channel, andwas automatically mapped in a one-to-one correspondence to channel 13 ofthe channel guide list. In such a situation, the channel guide list hastwo entries of channel 13. When a VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorderprogramming system code for channel 13 is entered by a user, it will bedescrambled and decoded, and then a search of the channel guide list fora channel 13 entry will be performed from the top down. Note that thefirst entry of channel 13 to be found will be the falsely identifiedcable channel 13, and not the correct entry remapped to channel 22. Thiswill cause the tuner to tune to inactive cable channel 13 instead ofcable channel 22, and the desired television show will not be recorded.In order to solve this problem, the user must delete the first,incorrect, entry of channel 13 from the channel guide list.

As a further example, assume that cable channel 02 was deleted from thechannel guide list because it was inactive when the VCR PLUS+™videocassette recorder programming system set up was performed. Assumefurther that at a later date channel 02 is added to the cable televisionservice's system. If the VCR PLUS+™ videocassette recorder programmingsystem code for a television show broadcast on channel 02 is thereafterentered by a user, channel 02 will be descrambled and decoded but willnot be found in the channel guide list (see element 235 of FIG. 2).Therefore, a one-to-one correspondence of broadcast channel number tochannel guide number will be assumed, as shown in element 245 of FIG. 2,and channel 02 will be tuned for recording, even though the channel 02entry was deleted previously.

The present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS.3r-3u, and 6-8. Substantially all of the foregoing has concerned a VCRconnected directly to a cable television service, as shown in FIG. 6a.In FIG. 6b, a VCR is shown coupled to the RF input via a cable box 610b.Tuner 102 of FIGS. 6a-6b is the same tuner unit 102 previously describedwith respect to FIG. 1. FIG. 6b is the configuration used when all ofthe television channels provided by the cable television service areencoded in some fashion (i.e., a cable box is required). In such aconfiguration, the VCR will be set to record all television programs onthe cable box output channel (typically, channel 2, 3, or 4). It isherein recognized that in a system according to FIG. 6b, theabove-described channel mapping feature may be eliminated. The set-upprocedure for this configurations of FIGS. 6a-6d is shown in FIG. 7, andis as follows. When the VCR is first turned on, and the program key ofits remote control is pressed, the screen of FIG. 3a appears (step 700and 705). Pressing key 5 (step 710) causes the display of the screen ofFIG. 3r (step 715). If key 3 is pressed (step 720), the program checksto see if the user had previously selected NORMAL as opposed to CATVfrom screen 3r. If Yes, then the routine causes the display of thescreen of FIG. 3u (step 730). FIG. 3u is the channel mapping screen forNORMAL (i.e., air or broadcast) channels, and is essentially the same asFIG. 3c, previously described. If at step 725, it was found that CATVhad been selected, then the routine advances along the NO path to step735 wherein the screen of FIG. 3s is displayed. At step 740, if key 1 ispressed it means that the user has a cable television service which doesnot require a cable box. This is the arrangement shown in FIG. 3c. Inthat case, the screen of FIG. 3c is displayed (step 745). If at step 740either of keys 2 or 3 were pressed, it means that the user has a cablebox in one of configurations 6b or 6c (FIG. 6d is a special case of FIG.6c and will be discussed later). In either case, the screen of FIG. 3tis displayed, (it is to be understood that the "03" is the outputchannel of the cable box, and is entered by the user), and the outputchannel information is stored (step 750). If key 2 were entered fromscreen 3s, it means that all channels are received via the cable box(i.e., the configuration of FIG. 6b), and therefore the cable box outputchannel will automatically be substituted for all channels entered viathe VCR PLUS codes. That is, no channel mapping is required at all, andthe program exits (step 760) via the NO path from step 755. If however,key 3 was entered from screen 3s, it means that the user has theconfiguration shown in FIG. 6c. In that configuration, the premiumchannels are recorded via the cable box, and all others directly fromthe incoming cable.

Referring to FIG. 6c, the incoming cable is applied to a signal splitter620c, which may be an RCA 2-way splitter model number AH047, sold byThomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.. One output of splitter 620c iscoupled to the input of cable box 610c. The other output of splitter620c is coupled to one input of an RF signal switch unit 630c (commonlyknown as an A-B switch), which may be an RCA A-B switch model numberAH041, sold by Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.. The output of thecable box is coupled to the remaining input terminal of A-B switch unit630c. The output of A-B switch unit 630c is coupled to the RF inputterminal of the VCR. In this configuration, some channel mapping isrequired for those channels which are received directly from the cablevia switch terminal A. Rather than causing the user to remap all of thepremium channels received from the cable box to the cable box outputchannel, it is herein recognized that no channel mapping is required.

This is, because the premium channels are all received on the cable boxoutput channel, and can be treated as follows. The flowchart of FIG. 8is identical to that of FIG. 2 with the exception of thenon-correspondence of steps 245 and 845. In FIG. 8, which is the figureused with configuration of FIG. 6c, if a decoded channel guide numberdoes not appear in the channel guide list, then the user-entered cablebox output channel is assumed. Thus, all that is necessary for mappingthe premium channels is to delete them from the channel guide list, asshown and explained above with regard to FIGS. 3g and 3h. It is notedthat in this configuration the user must remember to turn cable box 610con, select the proper channel, and select the B terminal on A-B switchunit 630c.

It is known from modern television sets (such as RCA color televisionreceiver model number CTC-140R) to include multiple RF input terminalsand RF terminal selection circuitry. FIG. 6d shows a VCR incorporatingsuch RF terminal selection capability. In FIG. 6d, the A-B switch unit630d is internal to the VCR, and is electronically controlled (bycontroller 110 of FIG. 1) to automatically select the B input when thechannel guide number fails to appear in the channel guide list(indicating that it is a premium channel to be recorded from the cablebox). That is, step 845 of FIG. 8 would be modified to also select RFterminal B. The configuration of FIG. 6d relieves the user of having toremember to set the A-B switch to select the proper terminal.

Thus, there has been described, a videocassette recorder including VCRPLUS+™ videocassette recorder programming system capability andautoprogramming capability, wherein the channel-mapping procedure isgreatly simplified for users having cable boxes.

What is claimed is:
 1. A videocassette recorder, comprising:a tuner fortuning to each of a plurality of television channels; a memory circuitfor storing channel related data in a first list and a second list; acontroller for controlling said tuner and storing said data in saidmemory circuit; and data input circuitry for use by a viewer forentering data; said controller causing said tuner to perform anautoprogramming function in which data indicative of active channels isstored in said first list; said controller associating a channel-guidechannel number with a respective active channel number in response todata input by said viewer, and storing said channel-guide channel numberin said second list, said second list storing only a subset of allchannel-guide channel numbers; said controller searching said secondlist for a given channel-guide channel number and upon finding saidgiven channel-guide channel number said controller uses an associatedactive channel number for tuning; upon failing to find said givenchannel-guide channel number in said second list, said controlleroperates in a first or a second predetermined mode of operation, whereinin said first mode of operation said controller uses said givenchannel-guide channel number for tuning; and in said second mode ofoperation said controller uses a default channel number for tuning. 2.The videocassette recorder of claim 1 further comprising,a switch havinga first input terminal for receiving television signals on a pluralityof said television channels, having a second input terminal forreceiving television signals on a channel identified by said defaulttelevision channel number, and an output terminal for developing atelevision signal selected from one of said input terminals, said outputof said switch providing television signals to said tuner.
 3. Thevideocassette recorder of claim 2, wherein said switch is external tosaid videocassette recorder and is user operated.
 4. The videocassetterecorder of claim 2, wherein said switch is internal to saidvideocassette recorder and is controlled by said control means.